Graduation Trip

[Steve Egge]

The last 2 weeks of June were spent flyfishing with my son as a college graduation splurge. Left June 16th after work on a 2230 miles fishing adventure starting by driving to Montana – Choteau – Missouri River – Smith River Return home overnight for restocking Then on June 25th we drove to Antelope, Oregon to put in on the John Day River at Clarno and float 70mi to Cottonwood Bridge. Then home to Puyallup.   The trip was as follows: Montana Basically the drought is over – they have had lots of rain in May and June and Montana is the greenest I have ever seen it.   Fished some lakes on private land – great kamloops trout Fished the Missouri River downstream from Craig – Nice of the BLM to release the dam due to all the rain as we were fishing. -          You could see the water get dirtier and lots of sticks, logs, weed beds floated by … all nymphing due to the changing river … we did catch fish but not like you want when you splurge and get a guide to take you down the river.  No dry fly action.  Kind of disappointing.  It was a “should have been here last week” Fished the Smith for 1.5 days on some private land … did not float it.  Took 90 minutes driving over dirt roads from Cascade to get to the homestead land on the river. The Smith was also a little high and dirty … didn’t have any success the first half day … except for a  white fish.  The next day I rigged up a san juan worm with bead heads and a lightning bug dropper on a nymph rig and managed to catch a dozen fish.  3 nice browns, 2 nice rainbows, 4 smaller rainbows 4 – 8 inches and 3 whitefish.  I’d love to fish it when the water was prime. Returned to Puyallup Saturday June 25th We drove to Antelope and stayed in the “trailer park” across the street from the general store and were treated to a concert by the Mud Bay Gospel Band and an all you could eat hamburger BBQ … except the Marionberry cobbler a la mode was extra … but worth it. Put in on the John Day at Clarno.  The weather was overcast and not the hot sun we expected.  Water was about 1000 cfs or so.  9 people and one yellow lab went on the trip.  There were 4 personal pontoon boats, one 16 foot pontoon, 1 14’ hyside raft and one Able Travel Craft.  Three people had to leave early (the Hyside Raft and one of the passengers on the 16 ft pontoon) and pulled out at 30 mile creek (there is a fee for access on this private land).  About 2 hours from the put in is Clarno rapids … you need to scout it before you go through it.  Pull off to the left and climb the hill and look.  Not too big a rapid (class III) but you need to navigate through the rocks … my advise (for almost all the rapids on the lower John Day) … stay to the left. None of the river is too hard, but you do need to look for sleeper (submerged) rocks and in some of the rapids … pay attention. Everyone made it through Clarno Rapids unscathed and we were back to fishing. The beginning of the trip was hampered by overcast weather/drizzle/and rain.  Then the weather cleared and the 80-90 degree weather that the John Day is known for. We did have 100+ fish days … didn’t really count but figure an easy 15-25 fish an hour depending upon which stretch of river you were on.  In general we fished from 8 am to 3 in the afternoon.  Sometimes longer.  Most of us fished with 6 weights … you could go to a four weight but the wind can come up and sometimes did. The bigger rod was good to bring the fish and quickly to release them in good shape. You did catch a ton of small 4 – 6 inch fish … my largest was 15 ½ inches and others caught big ones also.  They are a great game fish if you have never fished small mouth bass. Very aggressive, often a fish brought in was followed by others waiting for it to drop the fly.  My partner saw a fish attack a fly from a position 10 feet away.  The fly that most of us used and was the #1 fly was the Gurgle-Pop … tied on a size #12 hook … yellow foam with white legs.  Orange worked well also. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/121503fotw.html I’m sure you can do as well on wet flies … but it will not be nearly as much fun.  I found I missed more strikes when I used a girdle bug.  We were pretty good about going down the river in our pontoons … floating and fishing.  I’m sure there were places where you could change rigs and fish deep and do well … especially along the cliffs.  We didn’t stop much in some areas to concentrate of fish in some of the back eddies.  It is a 70 mile+ trip and you need to average about 12-15 miles a day on a 6 day trip. The lower river is a pool and riffle/rapid affair and flow is about 1.8 miles an hour in the slower areas to about 6 miles an hour down the riffle/rapid area.    It is an absolutely gorgeous trip, and it should be on your must do list.  We were checked by the river patrol …. We had a copy of our registry that we filled out with us on the river, and we had a WAG toilet system, and a garbage bag so he complemented us and went on his way.  Nice Guy. He has a Satellite phone to get help to you if needed. Think of him as a river Steward.  We ran into a family in canoes that were ill prepared with no repair kits who blew out the bottoms of both their canoes.  They got out at 30mile creek OK.  We also ran into a group of Texans who were fishing with gear out of pontoons … they had been coming for 15 years. On the John Day … you need an approved toilet, a whistle, PFD, an extra oar, and it is a Leave No Trace camping policy.  Extra, uneaten food, coffee grounds, all need to be carried out in a garbage bag and nothing is to be buried or left. There are some nice BLM campsites (can’t have a fire) and some other nice unmarked camp sites … often best found by the trails to the river.    Feel free to contact me if you need more information.   Steve Egge